Nick Guay delivered a stellar defensive performance Friday while playing in a ferocious wind storm. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It was an experience.
Friday’s boys soccer clash between Coupeville High School and visiting Orcas Island was less about the final score, and more about the various feats of strength pulled off by Mother Nature.
Yes, the Vikings left Cow Town with a 3-0 win, scoring all of their goals with the wind at their back in the second half.
And yes, the loss to the defending Northwest 2B/1B League champs drops the Wolves to 0-2 on the still-young season.
But long after the game results fade from memory, everyone will still be talking about the weather, which was rough even by Whidbey standards.
Catching the brunt of a passing storm, Coupeville’s Mickey Clark Field endured 200 MPH winds all game, though not a drop of rain.
What? You say it wasn’t really 200 MPH?
OK, we’ll split the difference and settle on 197 MPH.
Cause that’s how it felt while watching the flag pole at the stadium nearly bend in half as I walked past it on the way to my truck.
It was the kind of day when it was good the game started at 4 PM, and not 6 PM, as the power went out midway through the first half, while the press box creaked like it was about to go airborne and hurtle Wizard of Oz-style across the prairie.
Down on the pitch, players from both teams spent most of the game bent over, while the refs clung to their flags for dear life.
A bird, flying low and lean, stuck his tongue out at the folks in the stands, then regretted it when a wall of wind sent him cartwheeling back towards the far end of the field.
Off in the distance, the entire infield at the CHS baseball diamond lifted up and departed for a road trip, a wall of dirt moving like a bat out of Hell.
Closer to the action, a wayward plastic bag — acting like the scene-stealer from American Beauty — danced the dance of its people, whirling and twirling a different direction with each gust.
Up in that creaking press box, the one of us who spent most Friday nights back in 1999 renting VHS tapes slowly realized no current CHS student was alive when that angsty flick won Oscars — making my shout-out to it probably pointless.
But, anyway…
The game itself, held in the middle of a cyclone gettin’ it on in a raunchy three-way with a tornado and a hurricane, was a scoreless battle for the first 40 minutes.
Coupeville opened with the wind at its back, which meant the Wolves had a much-easier time pushing the pace of play.
Unfortunately for the Wolves, while they had several decent looks at the net, nothing got past the Orcas goaltender.
The Vikings didn’t do much on offense, what with the wind straight-up brutalizing them, but the visitors did mount one fairly intense charge late in the half.
The Orcas shooter came crashing hard against Wolf goalie Aidan Wilson, but Nick Guay, hustlin’ his buns off, slid in at the last moment and used a toe to deflect the ball away and out of bounds.
Coming out of halftime, the teams switched sides, and that was enough to give Orcas a boost.
Cadence Kraayeveld got the only goal which truly mattered, on a ball which narrowly got past Coupeville goalie Alex Murdy, then the wind assisted scores #2 and #3.
With his teammates unable to get the ball past midfield more than once or twice while going against the wind, Murdy was a busy man and played much-better than the score might indicate.
“Big props to Alex on playing both attack and goal,” said CHS coach Robert Wood. “Obviously, his athleticism is going to be a huge bonus to our team no matter where he plays.
“Tough to get him not to be frustrated though … he’s a perfectionist and did not like being scored on.
“However, I’ll say it again — I don’t care about goals. I care about what you do after.”
Coupeville opened its season with games against what are likely the two best teams in the NWL, and while the resulting growing pains hurt, they will hopefully pay off down the road.
“The team played well, but it’s obvious what needs work … space, timing, shape,” Wood said.
“Shape deteriorated quickly — which kills the spacing everyone expected — which kills the timing needed to be a cohesive, functional unit.
“A frustrating loss,” he added. “We played way better than the scoreboard shows, and hopefully next game will display our abilities more directly.”
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